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2018 cm17fq
Hello from Indianapolis! Former owner of a 1990 Rockwood pop-up here. I now have a 2018 Coleman 17FQ that I bought earlier this year for what I thought was a good deal - about $3k less than similar trailers on the market at the time. Of course I gave it a once-over before I decided to pull the trigger on it. The seller (original owner) claimed he had never used the plumbing system and the only issue he knew of was a broken toilet valve caused by storing something in the lavatory, and he was kind enough to supply an OEM Thetford replacement valve.
The only issue I found with it right off the bat was a tiny rip in the roof above the door that had let some water in. I didn't notice it when I looked at it before buying because it was so small and I reasoned the seller hadn't noticed it either. I opened it up, dried it out, and then Eternabonded it back together. It has been bone dry since.
My real issues with this rig started the weekend before our first scheduled trip to Brown County State Park (Indiana). I decided to get all the systems up and running for a shakedown in the driveway prior to taking it out for the first time. When I bought it, the drain plugs were out of the low-point drains and the water heater. Good news, I figured, the system was kept empty.
I opened up the compartment under the bottom bunk where the water heater lives and saw that it was bypassed. I un-bypassed it, then started filling it with water. It was taking longer than I expected, and I soon noticed a flood cascading across the entire floor in the back of the rig, going under the doors, under the toilet, under the shower. After pulling the insulation off of the heater, I saw the tank had a nice end-to-end crack no doubt caused by a hard freeze with water in the tank.
I pulled down the gray and black tanks then dropped the underbelly from the entire back side of the trailer, pulled out all the soaked insulation, dried it out for a few days, then re-insulated it and put it back together. After replacing the water heater tank, I was back in business with no leaks.
We had it out a second time two weeks ago at Turkey Run State Park. No issues, except I kept losing the pilot on the water heater. I have since replaced the pilot assembly but I think the gas control valve is also bad.
This past weekend, we took it to Lake Rudolph down in Santa Claus, Indiana. On our second or third day down there, I noticed water peeing from the underbelly, this time from the front. This was the first full hookup site I've had it at (I've had to use tank water at the other two) but I was connected to the campground's water supply through a 50 psi max RV water pressure regulator. I found it strange because there was absolutely no water anywhere inside the trailer, not even under the queen bed in the storage compartments.
The entire front section of the underbelly appeared filled with water, so I slit the Darco right in the middle with my pocketknife and sure enough, I had a nice waterfall. After dragging it home (and losing third gear in my pickup truck's transmission about halfway through the trip) this morning I opened up the underbelly in the front, again pulling out loads of soaked insulation.
I pressurized the water system and found the leak in the water pump from the cracked pressure switch. Somehow, the water was leaking in just such a way that it ran down the wire bundle through the hole in the floor and flooded the underbelly without leaving any water inside the trailer itself. Stealthy.
The front end is easier to work on because of having less plumbing wiring, and tanks in the way. I'm guessing the pressure switch cracked because of the same reason the water heater tank cracked - the scheister I bought it from didn't winterize it and the water system froze up.
I think once I get this last issue repaired, I'll have a pretty nice trailer. The interior is in really good shape (its only a year old) and everything else works as it should. The remainder of the plumbing system is sound. Fortunately none of the drain piping or tanks leak.
Because of this, I will never buy another used RV. Ever. Not even from a dealer (unless there is a good warranty). I will only buy new from now on.
The guy who sold me this one could have had the common courtesy to tell me that he failed to winterize it, and I could have checked this stuff out before flooding both ends of the underbelly in the first year of ownership. I probably still would have bought it and could have saved myself a lot of work - if he had been honest.
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